The Comic Speculator – New Comics Roundup 11/23/2011

The Comic Speculator is a blog written by WorthPoint Comic Book “Worthologist” Matt Baum that takes a look at each week’s hot new comics and back issues and the comic market place in general. Prices discussed here are taken from the Overstreet Guide to Comics (OVST), Comicspriceguide.com (CPG) and current online auction sales. Sales numbers and rankings are courtesy of ICV2.com. The codes under the prices of new titles discussed are Diamond Comics order codes that can be used to help your local comic retailer in ordering the issues discussed. If you want to hear what this nerd sounds like you can catch him on his podcast, the Two-Headed Nerd Comicast, where he and his friend Joe discuss the latest comic news, review some new comics, and answer your questions.

New Comics Roundup

Below you will find all the info you could possibly need on the hot, new comics shipping this Wednesday, Nov. 23. For a full list of comics shipping this week, click here. To find a comic shop near you, click here.

Variant Watch

Here’s a list of all the variants shipping from Diamond this week and some info on the hot ones. The variant Ratios (i.e.; 1:10) represent how many of the regular issues the retailer has to order to receive one of the variants. If a ratio is not included it’s because I couldn’t get the information or because the variant is a new printing. The prices I post here are suggested, reasonable prices based on the ratios and may be higher or lower at your comic shop. Click here for this week’s complete shipping list.

ABSTRACT STUDIOS

Rachel Rising #1 (Red 2nd Printing Variant Cover), $3.99

AMRYL ENTERTAINMENT:

Cavewoman Cover Gallery #4 (Special Edition). Limited to 750 copies.

APOSTLE ARTS:

Billy Tucci A Child Is Born (One Shot)(Billy Tucci Variant Cover), 1:10. Yep, Billy Tucci, the guy who gave us the slutty Japanese assassin Shi is now doing an illustrating the story of the birth of Christ. Go figure . . .

Flash #3 (Francis Manapul Black & White Variant Cover), 1:200. Time for the weekly “don’t pay too much for this one” rant. I saw one instance of a copy selling for $135 on eBay, but everything else was less than $100and there’s still plenty to choose from. So, without screaming, stay under $100 here. Watch for an $80-$90 price tag.

Flash #3 (Jim Lee Variant Cover). Retailers could order this variant equal to the lowest ordered New 52 #3 issue shipping this week. I’m guessing it’s Blackhawks, so don’t let sellers trick you into paying for this one like it’s a ratio variant. Just because your retailer only ordered five copies of Blackhawks and therefore can only order five copies of this variant doesn’t make it anymore rare. Watch for a $5-$7 price tag.

X-Men #1 (Dynamic Forces)(Ken Haeser Wolverine Remarked Edition), $49.99. Limited to 75 copies. Listed as Ken Haeser but Diamond lists the artist as Joe Rubinstein, who was the inker for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (I had to look that up).

Fantastic Four #600 (Joe Quesada Sketch Variant Cover), 1:100. Not the best John Romita Jr. variant I’ve seen here but I guess none of his art has been his best lately. Watch for a $7-$10 price tag. I can’t find a picture of the Arthur Adams variant and I’ll bet it’s awesome. Come on Marvel, normally you guys are great at this. Watch for a $15-$20 price tag. The Quesada variant for this book is stunning. I may have to splurge for this one and if I do will be looking for a $30-$35 price tag. It’s just too cool. And finally, why Marvel and DC continue to give the sketch variants the highest ratio to order is beyond me. Wouldn’t people want the fully colored and finished variant more? I mean the sketch variant is cool, sure, but look at that finished variant. I don’t get it, but if you need this one, watch for a $70-$75 price tag.

Invincible Iron Man #510 (Mike Choi Marvel Comics 50th Anniversary Variant Cover) 1:50. This one just screams Fleer-gold-embossed-Marvel-Legends-collector-card to me. Not bad; it just looks very ’90s to me. Maybe it’s the pose or the computer coloring but I’m definitely getting an “extreme” vibe from this one. Watch for a $25-$30price tag.

Secret Avengers #19 (Larry Stroman Marvel Comics 50th Anniversary Variant Cover), 1:50. My love of Larry Stroman’s work goes all the way back to the mid-1980s, when he was working on Alien Legion with Chuck Dixon. That said, this is not the most amazing Stroman cover I’ve seen, and it doesn’t really say “50th Anniversary,” either. And why no faces? Watch for a $25-$30 price tag.

Wolverine And The X-Men #2 (Ed McGuinness Marvel 50th Anniversary Variant), 1:50. I don’t get this one, either. All in all, not a good week for Marvel 50th Anniversary variants. Unless you like Wolvie’s butt. Watch for a $25-$30 price tag.

Speculator Picks of the Week

These are comics that could sell out very quickly due to conservative ordering, popular demand, shipping errors or even UPS trucks overloaded with returned Penn State memorabilia and Rick Perry for President lawn signs. Pick them up while you can or pay too much for them later . . .

Solicitation: This special standalone issue features an expanded Guide to the Known Keys, an all-new Guide to Failed Keys, and a story of summer-night magic, set in Keyhouse’s unlikely past.

32 pages
$3.99
JUL110327

Why it’ll go fast: Apparently, I’m the only jerk that isn’t reading Locke and Key and I’m missing out on a hell of a story. It’s on my “to read” list, I swear. Like the other Locke and Key comics, this one will go very quickly but probably not right away. I’m guessing retailers order lighter on this one than a normal story issue and reorder as fast as they can when it sells just as well as the regular story issues. IDW has been content—or it a least seems that way—to print smaller runs of first-printings and then sell reprinting, which is another reason why this one will go quickly. Will the guide have huge back-issue value? Probably not, but it will be hard to find.

Solicitation: In April 2011, Mark Millar, Frank Quitely, Dave Gibbons, John Romita Jr, Leinil Yu, Paul Cornell, Andy Diggle, Jock, Duncan Fegrado, Sean Phillips and more than 50 other comic-book creators joined forces with Kapow to break not one but TWO Guinness World Records—the fastest comic-book ever produced and the biggest number of creators working on a single comic. The Kapow Special stars Superior and was written, penciled, inked and lettered in less than 12 hours. PLEASE NOTE: All proceeds from the sales of this comic will go to Yorkhill Sick Children’s Hospital in Scotland and the print-run for this book will be limited to just 10,000 copies.

24 pages
$2.99
Sold Out

Why it’ll go fast: This one has the mark of “Ridiculously High Priced Back Issue” stamped right on the cover. Every artist that worked on the book is amazing and there’s more than 10 of them, two great writers, and it’s a limited print run for charity. That’s enough to make collectors kill each other to get a copy. Watch for this one to start a little slow and then skyrocket in value. By this weekend, I’m betting it’s selling for at least $20.

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Matt Baum is WorthPoint’s comic book Worthologist. If you have any questions about these books or anything else in the comic book world feel free to contact Matt or post your question below in the Comic Book Forum in the WorthPoint Forums, located in the Community tab. You can also reply to this article in the “leave a reply box below. If you need more comic-nerd in your life, you can follow Matt on Twitter, where he’s always screaming about something nerd-related. Thanks to all Matt’s new followers and keep the comments coming!

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No Comments

Being a Spider-Man guru, I recognize the Wolverine and the X-Men cover as the Death of Gwen Stacey issue #121… however these 50th anniversary covers are not as exciting as one would have hoped upon hearing about this as a concept.

So are the covers of FF #600 a spoiler alert as the Torch is a featured character on the covers? We all know he will come back and an anniversary issue is always chosen as opposed to just a random number like 642.